Sonic The Hedgehog Co-Creator Yuji Naka Hired at Square Enix

The man behind one of the most famous characters in gaming history is taking on a new challenge.

Sonic Co-Creator Yuji Naka announced today that he has been hired by game developer and publisher, Square Enix. The details are scarce but Naka mentioned in a tweet that he has been with the company since early January.

While it is unclear what project he is currently working on, Naka says that he’s, “joining game development,” and that he aims to “develop an enjoyable game.” He also asked for people to “look forward to it.”

Naka worked at Sega from the early 1990’s until 2006, and was the head of Sonic Team during that time. During his tenure he worked on over fifteen Sonic titles, first as a lead programmer and later on as a producer. The last Sonic game he worked on was Sonic Riders, which was released in February 2006.

Later that year, he left Sega to launch his own gaming company called Prope Game Studio. Prope has developed a handful of Digimon titles and Wii games such as Let’s Catch and Fishing Resort, as well as various IOS and Android apps. Its most recent console release was Rodea the Sky Soldier for Wii U and 3DS which we called, “an interesting game worth owning.”